The Emphasis of Strength: How Assertive Dialogue Contributed to the Theme of Strength in the Film Heneral Luna (Movie Review Sample)

Charlene Ann Mildred Barroga ART209 Final Paper 4ABHUM The Emphasis of Strength: How Assertive Dialogue Contributed to the Theme of Strength in the Film Heneral Luna Heneral Luna, a movie directed by Jerrold Tarog is mostly acclaimed as one of the most successful projects in the recent development of Philippine Cinema. As the film industry faces a lot of challenges in terms of creating good movies in terms of it’s ontology, spectatorship, and other aspects needed in film-- Heneral Luna nailed that success that the film industry is eyeing for due to leverage of certain qualities, themes, and most importantly dialogue. Because of this, the film Heneral Luna is a film worth studying in relation to how dialogue promotes the main themes of the movie-- particularly strength. Strength is one of the most major themes of the movie. This is because, in looking at the character of Heneral Luna who was portrayed by John Arcilla through his performance in delivering his dialogues. In fact, the early portions of the film already sets the tone of showcasing strength in the movie-- particularly the first eleven minutes. In fact, as the characters highlight the emphasis of strength in the film there is a shift of tone in his dialogues from his mellow tones into his strong rigorous voices as to be seen ever since the beginning of the film as Arcilla transitioned sharply from soft, serious and gentle tones as he laughs with the reporter who is portrayed by Ahron Villaflor who sought to obtain his story, to over-the-top rage and screaming during the cabinet meeting (Arcilla and Villaflor, 1: 57: 00- 1:54: 35). The main idea of the conflict was that of choosing between accepting the reality of war being the only option to drive the Americans away and trying to enact peace with the Americans after the advent of Spanish rule. The plot of the movie depicts the reality that Luna was spot-on in this assessment, and the tone and intensity of the dialogue followed along with this. Lines like “Walang porma ang duwag sa gabineteng ito!” (Arcilla, 1: 52: 37) adhered with this while lines of Emilio Aguinaldo who was portrayed by Mon Confiado delivering his lines such as: “Sa ngayon kakampi natin ang Amerika. Nangako sila sa akin sa Hong Kong.” (Confiado 1: 51: 41) and also “Hintayin natin matapos ang Treaty of Paris.” (Confiado, 1: 51: 23) into monotonous tones were assumptions that proved far from the truth of the power-hungry Americans. Given these lines, as they start to set the tone into emphasizing the theme of strength, it is also evident that the film is already starting to convey the main message of the film in relation to truth and the denial of truth and that is truth is hard to bear and is an excellent cinematic tool that pushes the message forward. Whether you sit on one end of this political fence or another, the harsh utterances of Luna in this case represented the harsh realities that its viewers can relate with. In fact, through these shift of tones in the deliverance of dialogues it is evident enough that the film can be a good material in terms of analyzing how the theme of strength is portrayed in the film through the characters in the lens of Peter Lehman as Lehman’s theory focuses on the way how directors and film actors portray an important role in the film. In fact, Peter Lehman could cite this movie as a clear example in his discussions on his essay entitled Script/Performance/Text: Performance Theory and Auteur theory because according to him film directors are akin to theater performances as well, and the content of a movie isn't just relegated to the static reality of the script. Rather, it is dynamic and there exists an important role and relationship...